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Here’s a collection of screenshots and GIFs of new features I’ve been working on.

I’ve done some work on pets/companions, including adding a ranged companion (below). It’s now also possible for a second player to control companions – local multiplayer! Like in Sonic 2, if there is no player 2, or player 2 leaves the controller untouched for a while, companions revert to their ordinary AI behavior.

Hey everyone! Here’s a quick update of everything I’ve been working on lately.

Firstly, I’ve been working on a new script for Lenna’s Inception with SamuriFerret. We’ve made some large changes to the story-line in order to ensure all the threads come together into a satisfying ending, and to make sure parts of the story don’t obstruct gameplay. As an example of the latter, several story characters will now contact you via Lance’s mobile when something’s up, so that you don’t have to return to the town and hunt down specific NPCs.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve added 5 new types of enemies to the game:

From left to right: smileder, sharktula, dolphinja, snail, bombshell.

Yes, Lenna’s Inception will finally have water-based enemies – the sharktula and dolphinja. I’ve completely rewritten the monster-spawning code to support this properly.

Next up, I’m going to be adding a new follower, and then I’ll start implementing the new script in the game.

Finally, if you haven’t seen it already, Stardew Valley just released on Steam. It’s well worth a look!

It’s past 4 AM on a Saturday morning, so I’ll keep this post short and instead refer back to my previous post for the contents of the update:

I’m currently putting in the last of the new features for beta8 this evening (sound effects for new items, actions and tiles). What’s left after that is fixing the remaining bugs, testing and then releasing the beta8 update! You can see my progress towards the release on my trello board.

As I wrote last month, the new GBA-style graphics won’t be included in beta8, they’ll be in a future update instead. The current plan is for both styles to be available in the final game.

I’m currently putting in the last of the new features for beta8 this evening (sound effects for new items, actions and tiles). What’s left after that is fixing the remaining bugs, testing and then releasing the beta8 update! You can see my progress towards the release on my trello board.

As I wrote last month, the new GBA-style graphics won’t be included in beta8, they’ll be in a future update instead. The current plan is for both styles to be available in the final game.

It’s been a long time since the last update. That’s partially down to the graphical upgrade taking longer than we thought, so we’re moving the new graphics into a later update. That way you won’t have to wait for other new features, bug fixes and polish.

Since the last post, we’ve continued adding lots of polish to the game. Samuri has continued his art rework, and we now have almost all the tiles we need, and a lot of the items.

I’m currently in the process of tightening up the combat: fixing weird hitboxes, making sure enemies telegraph their attacks, improving animations, etc.

A common piece of feedback I’ve had is about the “dead” lower-left corner of the player – it’s not actually possible to hit enemies in that corner with the sword as it currently is. So I’ve extended the arc of the sword a few more degrees:

It’s been a tense month trying to figure out my response to the new EU VAT rules, but in the end Leaf, operator of itch.io came to the rescue! itch.io now offers the option of handling VAT for indie developers, which is really awesome! 🙂

You can buy Lenna’s Inception on itch.io:

It’s also available via Humble:

And finally, finally, I can release beta7 to you today, which includes these lovely new features:

The autumn biome has been added.

The graveyard biome has been added.

Randomized caves have been added to the overworld.

An obtainable bicycle has been added. This can be used for fast travel by selecting it on the inventory screen.

The coffee break challenge has been added. This is a short (~10 minutes) challenge mode on a single dungeon with a random ruleset from the other challenges. There is no online leaderboard for this.

The daily challenge has been added. This is like the coffee break challenge, but based on a standardized per-day seed shared between all players. The leaderboard for this challenge is cleared at the end of the day.

I might be forced to halt purchases of Lenna’s Inception through itch.io in January due to new EU laws. The details of why (in my rant below) are quite tedious, but please be assured that:

I’m still absolutely committed to finishing the game!

I’m currently investigating other ways to make it available (several other stores look like possibilities).

If you’ve already purchased it, your itch.io download page will still work, and you will still be able to access all future updates through there.

I still think itch.io is bloody amazing and want it to succeed.

As I write this, you can still get it on itch.io. If you want it soon, buy it before the 31st December:

The owner/operator of itch.io has said that he is working on EU VAT compliance, so it’s possible that nothing might change for Lenna’s Inception come January. Although it is still quite hard for me to imagine what he would be able to do.

If you’re reading this in January, while the game is unavailable, and you really can’t wait for it: